May attempts to save modified Brexit deal

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday made a final push for the UK Parliament to back her Brexit withdrawal deal in a crunch vote after she claimed to have secured “legally binding” changes to the draft rejected by the House of Commons earlier this year.

May called on MPs in the House of Commons ahead of the vote on Tuesday to get behind her enhanced agreement setting out the UK’s exit strategy from the EU or risk going against the will of the majority that voted for Brexit in the June 2016 referendum.

“This is the moment… Back this motion and get the deal done… We cannot serve our country by overturning a democratic decision of the British people,” she said, hours after claiming a breakthrough in negotiations with the EU to secure changes to the controversial Irish backstop to make it more acceptable to all sides of the Commons.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn countered that it was the

same “bad deal” MPs had rejected in January and that his party would be voting against it again because it risks people’s living standards and jobs.

The clash came soon after UK Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox confirmed that the legal risk from the controversial Irish backstop “remains unchanged”, leading to hard-Brexiteers from within May’s own Conservative Party refusing to back the so-called “improved” divorce arrangement, leaving Britain’s exit from the EU still precariously poised ahead of the March 29 Brexit deadline.